Throughout its 75-year history, ASQ has been a professional organization that has been committed to providing enhanced expertise, professional networks, tools, and solutions to help its members advance their products, services, and industries. This has been accomplished by providing professional training, certifications, and knowledge to its global membership of individuals. ASQ provides vast resources to help its members advance a culture of quality to drive growth within their organizations.

While ASQ’s primary purpose is to serve individuals, it has also fostered a symbiotic relationship with multiple industries, including but not limited to, manufacturing, healthcare, education, and services. ASQ has earned the trust and respect of industry leaders by relentlessly fulfilling its mission of empowering the people, communities, and organizations of the world to achieve excellence through quality. Partnerships and collaborative efforts between ASQ and industry have long existed for the mutual benefit of both. While ASQ and organizations each benefit financially, all organizations benefit more from delivering added value and gaining trust and respect from customers and the public. ASQ offers organizations the opportunity to gain exposure as a quality company by exhibiting at ASQ conferences and events as well as through corporate sponsorships, receipt of recognition/awards, through ASQ’s digital channels and by conducting presentations at conferences, webinars and dinner meetings.

ASQ is not a sole entity but rather a composition of many parts. While many of the learning opportunities are handled through its headquarters, many of its member units—both geographic (sections) and technical (divisions)—collaborate with local companies and industry-specific organizations. The local and industry-specific connections established by ASQ member units further contribute to the Society-provided value. The ASQ Inspection Division’s fine and excellent work in collaborating with companies provides an example of this  partnership. For many years, the Inspection Division has worked with organizations, primarily companies that provide measurement and test equipment and their related services, in the following ways:

1. Exhibiting at conferences
2. Newsletter advertisements 
3. Hosting webinars
4. Presentations at conferences; both technical sessions and product tutorials
5. The publications of technical articles in its newsletter
6. The ability to conduct training courses
7. Collaborating on joint activities, such as a shared booth at the World Conference on Quality & Improvement
8. Recognition via the Inspector of the Year Award
9. Recognition through ASQ’s awards program, such as the Hromi Medal

Exhibit and advertisement fees are absurdly low and everything else on the above list is provided at no cost. All of these opportunities benefit both the division and the organization; the Inspection Division is able to provide meaningful value to its membership via knowledge sharing and by facilitating connections between companies and its members. These connections enable companies to make immediate sales and possibly establish long-term partnerships with members’ employers.

The opportunities listed provide organizations ample ability to interface with more than 7,500 Inspection Division members, a subset of over 60,000 ASQ members. However, the Inspection Division is not alone in offering its members a more direct connection to applicable companies within their industry; the Division is only one of twenty-six technical communities within ASQ. Having so many technical communities provide a multitude of other opportunities for companies to collaborate with industry-specific member units within the society and vice versa.

ASQ has made a painstaking effort to remain at the forefront of quality throughout quality’s evolution. This effort results in providing individuals the resources they need to provide organizational value. As 2021 unfolds, ASQ will continue to provide ample and meaningful opportunities to collaborate with companies worldwide for their mutual benefit. Initially, this will be done virtually in new and innovative ways and hopefully in more traditional ways later this year as the pandemic subsides. Contact ASQ Customer Care to inquire about membership, publications, certifications, learning, and advertising opportunities. 

Jim Spichiger is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with over 35 years of experience in quality. He is the past chair of the ASQ Inspection Division and a long time ASQ member leader.